DECISIVE AND PARTNER COOPERATION IN STRENGTHENING RULE OF LAW AND SECURITY FOR ALL CITIZENS OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

The first working meeting between the newly appointed Director of the State Investigation and Protection Agency - SIPA and the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina was held.

The first working meeting of the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, Gordana Tadić, and the newly appointed SIPA Director, Darko Ćulum, was held in the premises of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.

Intensive continuation of cooperation in investigations of organised crime, illegal migrations and smuggling of persons, terrorism, war crimes and other criminal offences falling within the jurisdiction of the two institutions, as well as continuation of work in domestic and international operations to combat the most complex forms of crime were agreed at the meeting.

It was also pointed out that it was very important that, during the COVID 19 pandemic, these two institutions managed to organise their capacities and that work activities in all lines of work were not interrupted at any time.

The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and SIPA have been together in the fight against organised crime, terrorism, war crimes, human trafficking, drug trafficking, international crime and other crimes falling within their jurisdiction for almost 18 full years, since the beginning of their cooperation following their establishment in early 2003.

In recent years, investigations have been conducted in hundreds of cases, and several criminal organisations, whose criminal activities have endangered the rule of law and security in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, were eliminated through joint operation.

Under orders of war crimes prosecutors, several hundreds of suspects were located and deprived of liberty and work was done on locating and finding suspects and accused who were hiding outside the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and assistance and protection was provided to vulnerable witnesses and witnesses under threat, which is also an important competence of SIPA.

At present, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and SIPA are working on dozens of investigations of the most complex crimes, and participate in several international operations, in which they, together with partner institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the region and the world, collect evidence for prosecution of the most complex forms of crime.